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Biographical information: D .L. Simms was born on 3 September 1926 in London, England. He had degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of London.His career in The British Scientific Civil Service fell into three quite distinct parts. He spent 15 years carrying out research into the ignition and spread of fires, obtaining a Ph.D. for his work on the ignition of materials by radiation in 1963. He had a two-year break at the Office of the Minister for Science where he edited a report on Irrigation in Great Britain.
He then spent a decade investigating management problems in Government Departments, with a year out as the Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford, contemplating the results.
From 1972 he took part in a number of international and national attempts to control pollution. He was Secretary-General of the London Dumping Conference 1972; led the UK Delegation on Marine Pollution at the U.N. 3rd Law of the Sea Conference and was Secretary to the Interim Paris Commission (Land Pollution of the Sea). At home, he was responsible for developing, and publishing papers on, the Scientific Bases for Environmental Regulations (risk analysis, effects of toxic metals, contaminated land). He chaired the European Community’s Co-ordinating and Management Committee for Environment Protection, Climatology and Technological Hazards before in retirement getting down to serious research in the history of science and technology.
Dr. Simms died on 14 November 2010 in his home in London at age 84.